Maniac Mansion is a graphic adventure that Lucasfilm Games released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II on 5 October 1987. Designed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, it was the first game built on the SCUMM engine, which Lucasfilm went on to reuse in eleven later titles. The player leads Dave and two friends of the player's choice into a mad scientist's mansion to rescue his girlfriend Sandy, and the puzzles and endings change with the team.
The console versions took their own paths. Jaleco published a Japan-only Famicom version in 1988, then the reworked NES version in North America in September 1990. Lucasfilm made 250,000 NES cartridges with battery-backed saves, and Tim Schafer got his first professional credit as a playtester on that version.
The 1993 sequel Day of the Tentacle hides the whole original game on an in-game computer, as does its 2016 remaster. In December 2017 Disney re-released Maniac Mansion on digital storefronts, running on ScummVM.123
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Maniac MansionApple II version released the same day | Commodore 64 | Oct 5, 1987 | Lucasfilm Games | 1 |
| NA | Maniac MansionApple II | Other | Oct 5, 1987 | Lucasfilm Games | 1 |
| NA | Maniac MansionInfobox gives 12 March 1988, the text says early 1988 | MS-DOS | 1988 | Lucasfilm Games | 1 |
| NA | Maniac MansionAtari ST version released the same day | Amiga | Jul 26, 1989 | Lucasfilm Games | 1 |
| NA | Maniac MansionEnhanced version with higher-resolution graphics; infobox gives 31 December 1989 | MS-DOS | 1989 | Lucasfilm Games | 1 |
| NA | Maniac MansionReworked version by Realtime Associates | NES | September 1990 | Jaleco | 1 |
| JP | マニアックマンションManiakku ManshonFamicom; English Wikipedia gives 23 June 1988, Japanese Wikipedia 13 September 1988 | NES | 1988 | Jaleco | 2 |
| EU | Maniac MansionEnglish Wikipedia infobox gives 22 October 1992; Spanish Wikipedia dates the European NES release to 1990 | NES | 1992 | — | 1 |
| WW | Maniac MansionSteam (Windows, Mac) and GOG.com (Windows, Mac, Linux), running on ScummVM | Windows | Dec 18, 2017 | Disney | 4 |
Also known as: マニアックマンション JP2Maniakku Manshon JP2
Box art by region
NA Maniac Mansion 
EU Maniac Mansion 
JP マニアックマンション
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.
Version differences
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CensorshipNES (NA/EU)
Nintendo of America considered the game unsuitable for children, so the NES version removed nudity such as a swimsuit calendar, a classical statue and a mummy poster in a Playmate pose, and softened dialogue including Dr. Fred's line about brains being sucked out.1
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CensorshipNES (NA)
The scene where a hamster can be put in the microwave survived in the first batch of NES cartridges, but Jaleco removed it from later shipments after Nintendo noticed.1
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GameplayFamicom (JP)
The Japanese Famicom version uses flip-screens instead of scrolling and saves progress with a 104-character password.1
Translations
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Japanese Official
Jaleco1988NES · original Lucasfilm gameReleased · complete
Japanese Famicom version published by Jaleco, with all text written in hiragana.2
Where to play legally today
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GOG Purchase
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Steam Purchase
How to run it today
The GOG.com edition includes both the original and the Enhanced PC versions and runs through ScummVM, so it works on current Windows, macOS and Linux systems. The Steam edition for Windows and Mac also uses ScummVM.
- ScummVM scummvm.org
Reception
Happy-Computer reported it as West Germany's best-selling video game for three months in a row, though Ron Gilbert said it was not a huge commercial hit. Nintendo Power later ranked it the 61st best game ever in 2008.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.